New Orleans  Ok, it’s alright if you admit it. Deep down, way deep, way down, some of you hoped that the Senate would really write a healthcare bill that looked and tasted a little bit like Obama’s Affordable Care Act. When President Trump said that he thought the House Republicans’ bill was “mean,” some of you felt a glimmer of hope that maybe the Senate Republicans would get the message and come up with something less draconian. You knew that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s strategy of doing everything behind closed doors in secret was a bad omen, but still, this is America, hope springs eternal, you thought maybe it would not be god awful, run-to-the-bathroom-sick at first sight terrible. Bad news, all hope has been dashed. The Senate version of a “mean” bill was a we-can-top-this even meaner bill.

The raw elements have emerged. The mandate for everyone to get health care is history of course. Tax increases for the rich that had funded much of Obamacare and transferred those taxes into increased coverage for poorer Americans were also eliminated. The Senate added a couple of years to the phase down, which might for a minute seem like a better deal until you realize that they shrank Medicaid even more than the House had done. The Senate believes they have compromised by allowing states to keep expanded Medicaid which benefited millions, but staying or going is up to the states, and staying also means that in the coming years they will pay a larger and larger share of the cost of Medicaid and any subsidies that are also timed out. Oh, and for good measure, so much for some of the guaranteed national benefits for those needing maternity care or mental health support.

Somehow the Senate sees this whole Obamacare as a two-fer. Not only do they want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and sock it to the poor while re-feathering the nest of the rich, but they also want to cap Medicaid on the federal level, rather than allowing it to continue as an entitlement. By ending the entitlement they also want to punish seniors who exhaust their savings before they are old enough for Medicare as well as the disabled who depend on Medicaid for their health care in addition to SSI payments for their support. This isn’t a war on the poor, but a wholesale massacre on almost any group of people not standing in line with a contribution and a ticket to some Republican’s fundraiser.

And, get this, for some of the Senators, none of this is enough. Four or five of them are claiming this bloodletting didn’t go far enough so they won’t vote to carry this garbage until it smells even worse. There are also a couple of moderates who seem slightly perturbed that some of this might stick on their shoes, but it is unclear that they are willing to crawl out on the limb.

What’s really going on here? Do they really love the rich that much? Do they really hate women, the poor, the old, and the differently abled so much?

What can people do now to keep this horror from happening later?

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Please enjoy The Deslondes – Hurricane Shakedown

Thanks to WAMF.